Product Description

Ultimate guide to Offshore Tax Havens is a detailed listing of all the known, and not so commonly known, tax havens, their benefits, and their suitability for relocation by the low tax seeker. If you are looking for ways to cut your taxes, there is no better way than to relocate to a low or no-tax haven. However, as we have recently experienced with the South East Asian Tsunamis and earthquakes, it is prudent to select this haven carefully, with more than low tax rates in mind. A must read for all who aspire to changing their lifestyles by relocating offshore. The havens are listed in geographical order, starting with the USA and ending in the South Pacific Islands. A must read for all those seeking to shelter and protect their wealth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1091951 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

From the Publisher
This is a complete compilation of tax havens and their usefulness to the tax conscious individual.

From the Author
In the western world today, and in many countries around the world, the greatest enemy to personal wealth and financial success is tax. This book goes a long way to list all the tax havens in the world and their benefits and disadvantages.

From the Inside Flap
Why Consider Moving Offshore

The benefit for doing anything offshore is normally related to tax avoidance and legal freedom. Many tax havens around the world offer financial security through government legislation, as well as privacy through their banking laws. Figure 5-1: Effects of tax on your income

Many countries have restrictive tax laws that will erode your profits and often limit your spending power. In the UK, VAT is charged on most goods at a rate of 17.5%. Income tax is charged at a three-tiered rate depending on your income. For example, if you generated £100,000 per annum, you would pay £17,500 before you received your gross income of £82,500. This £17,500 VAT would be kept by your employer, and paid back to Customs and Excise at the end of their business year. (If you were VAT registered and self-employed you would do the same). You would loose £6,930 from the remaining £82,500 to income tax at the lower rate (charged at 22% up to £31500), and £20,400 to income tax at the higher rate (charged at 40% after £31,500). You would be taxed a further 17.5% for VAT on all the goods and services you bought with the remaining £55,170. That would leave you with £45,516.00. See the chart in Figure 5-1 for a visual representation of the effects of these taxes on your income. This means that in total, you would loose 54.48% of your generated income to taxes. If however, you generated all this income offshore and you lived in a tax haven, you would earn £100,000 and keep £100,000. Do you think it is worth relocating offshore, to save 54.Also, see Appendix 2 for a full listing. Types Of Tax Havens Not all tax havens are free from all taxes. Some of them offer a lower rate tax, or tax their businesses but not their citizens. Others tax their investors but not their locals, or visa versa. Because of this, you will need to be clear on exactly what you want to do offshore. Will you keep funds offshore, and invest from there internationally? Will you relocate there and become a resident? Will you start a business offshore and generate your income offshore? These options and many combinations of these options are available to you. By deciding which option to take, you will eliminate some of the countries from your list. The geographical location of the country that you finally select will require great consideration. Do you want to live in a warm country or a cooler one? Do you want to live in a country with a culture that is similar to that of your current home? Alternatively, would you prefer to get away from it all? Do you need to be closer to Europe, America etc, or is the world your oyster? The national language of the country will also play a part in your decision. Do you want French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, or another language to be the main language of the offshore jurisdiction? The infrastructure of the country will also play a large part in your decision. Do you need the country to have modern communications, public transport, medical facilities, and utilities, or are you prepared to live somewhere without some of these amenities and facilities? Do you need a fax machine, internet, mobile phone etc to do business, and feel comfortable? If you do, you will have to avoid the under developed jurisdictions. The cost of living in the chosen jurisdiction will determine whether you are financially able to afford the lifestyle in the offshore jurisdiction. In some offshore havens in Europe and the Caribbean, the cost of living is comparable to some western countries. Security issues are perhaps the most important consideration. Is the country safe? Is there a military government? Are the government and policing forces corrupt? When last was the country involved in a civil war? Have they ever been involved in military action against their neighbours? Are there terrorists operating in the country? What is the crime rate? How are foreigners treated?

Finally, after you have eliminated all the jurisdictions that do not match your requirements, a handful will be left. The best way to finalise your decision is to travel to the jurisdictions and live there for a few months. This is sufficient time to decide whether you want to settle there or not.

Living in an offshore haven is perhaps the best way of accelerating the growth of your net worth. This is because you are saving money through spending less due to a lower cost of living, as well as eliminating loss of income through heavy taxes. There are many more advantages to living in a tax haven, however for an investor, the privacy of banking, exemption from taxes, and a better quality of life, are often the most important.Offshore Havens

We will focus on three identified considerations when deciding on the offshore jurisdiction to select for relocation. These are: Language Geography Religion Language

Relocation is difficult enough without having to deal with a foreign language. For very few, moving to a country that speaks a different first language is desirable, as perhaps they want to learn that language, but the vast majority would like to move to a country which speaks the same language they are accustomed to. For this purpose, I have arranged the offshore havens linguistically. The main languages represented are: English French Spanish Italian Portuguese Russian Indian Chinese Japanese Swahili Geography

As most of you have ties in your old country of residence, it will be favourable for the offshore locations you chose to be close to home. This will allow for regular visits to family and friends, and allow family and friends to visit you. Therefore, we will divide the world into nine sectors, to meet this geographic goal. These geographic divisions are:

North America and Canada. South America. Western Europe. Eastern Europe and Russia. Mediterranean, the Aegean, and North Africa. Africa. The Indian Ocean and the Middle East. Asia and the Orient. Australasia and Oceania. Figure 5-2: Geographic division for offshore selection Religion For some, religion is the most important factor to consider when moving offshore. For this purpose, I have included information on the religious representation in each offshore tax haven. These include the following: Muslim. Judaism and Christian. Eastern (Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc). See Appendix 3 for a list of states and their official religions.

Customer Reviews

GCC
As I am moving to Bahrain, this was the first chapter read from the book.

When I saw that the Author had translated "GCC" as "Golf Corporation Council" I calmly closed the book, placed the book back in its original container and promptly returned the book to Amazon.

Although they do have a Golf Course in Bahrain, at Riffa, the correct translation for "GCC" is "Gulf Cooperation Council".

I cannot recommend any reading that would make such an ominous error.

Excellent and highly recommended book.
I was blown away by "Tax Avoidance a Practical Guide for Uk Residents", the authors other title and decided to try this book "The Ultimate Guide to Offshore Tax Havens". The first thing I noticed about this book was its size. This is a big book, letter sized and almost 400 pages long. It sets out to achieve a seemingly impossible task, which is to list and comment on all tax havens on the planet. Whilst I can't be sure if it was successful at achieving this objective, I definitely know that it has covered 99.9% of these tax havens. Many of the havens I have never heard of and talking to my colleagues who specialise in taxation for some of these havens, I found that the information was accurate and up to date. They had never heard of many of the tax havens either, and all the havens they knew (even the secret and little known ones) were all listed. This is an excellent reference book on Tax havens. Highly recommended.

Not great
This book is like a compendium of online information. A bit expensive for content provided. Don't expect more than a cursory overview of topic.